His Holiness Pope Francis has welcomes an invitation to visit Sri Lanka in the future.

Pope Francis met with a group of Sri Lankan immigrants living in Italy.

The group had come to Rome on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the consecration of the Church in Sri Lanka to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The group was led by the Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith.

In his address to the pilgrims, Pope Francis greeted Cardinal Ranjith, and thanked him for an invitation to visit Sri Lanka and said “I welcome this invitation, and I think the Lord will grant us the grace.”

The Holy Father recalled the circumstances that led to the consecration of Sri Lanka to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In the midst of the dangers of the Second World War, the Archbishop of Colombo, Jean-Marie Masson, vowed to build a shrine to the Madonna if the island-nation were preserved from foreign invasion.

Pope Francis spoke about the conflicts that Sri Lanka has faced in recent years and said it is not easy, to heal the wounds and cooperate with yesterday’s enemy to build tomorrow together, but it is the only path that gives hope for the future, for development and for peace.